President Trump will knock Democratic front-runner Zohran Mamdani on his “tuchus” if he becomes the Big Apple’s next mayor, rival Andrew Cuomo contended during Wednesday night’s debate.
The former governor, when asked about how he plans to work with Trump, said the way to deal with the “hyper-aggressive” president is to confront him.
Cuomo, running as an independent, then cast proud socialist Mamdani as simply not up to the task.
Andrew Cuomo said that President Trump will knock Democratic front-runner Zohran Mamdani on his “tuchus” if he becomes the Big Apple’s next mayor. Spectrum News NY1“He thinks he’s a kid and he’s going to knock him on his tuchus,” Cuomo said.
“It is a balance, but you’re going to have to be adversarial when you need to. But you want to cooperate to get good things done in this city, and you need federal help.”
Mamdani shot back, skewering Cuomo as “Trump’s puppet.”
“We heard from Donald Trump’s puppet himself, Andrew Cuomo,” Mamdani fumed.
Mamdani shot back, saying that Cuomo is “Donald Trump’s puppet.” Spectrum News NY1
“You can turn on TV any day of the week, and you will hear Donald Trump share that his pick for mayor is Andrew Cuomo, and he wants Andrew Cuomo to be the mayor, not because it will be good for New Yorkers, but because it will be good for him.”
The Queens state assemblyman said he was willing to work with Trump on affordability, but will fight the president on immigration crackdowns and other hot-button issues.
The anti-Trump rhetoric didn’t come from Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee.
“My adversaries have decided to bump chests with President Trump to prove who’s more macho,” he said.
“You can’t beat Trump. He holds most of the cards. He has already cut federal funding for Medicaid, for the SNAP program and is threatening cut funds for NYCHA. So if you all of a sudden going to get adversarial, you’re going to lose. And who gets hurt? The people of New York City with Trump, it’s always the ‘art of the deal.’”
Here are some highlights from the final 2025 NYC mayoral debate
- The 5 most notable moments from the final NYC mayoral debate
- Andrew Cuomo skewers Zohran Mamdani on ‘freeze the rent’ policy in fiery NYC mayoral debate moment: ‘Political blather’
- Andrew Cuomo mocks Zohran Mamdani over anti-Israel stance during NYC mayoral debate: ‘You are the savior of the Jewish people?’
- Andrew Cuomo declares Trump will knock Zohran Mamdani on his ‘tuchus’ if he’s elected NYC mayor
Wednesday’s debate – the final one before the Nov. 4 general election – is being held at the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City.
Early voting will begin on Saturday and end nine days later on Sunday, Nov. 2.
